Wondering About Wonder

Every so often I have one of those moments. Like when you looks up in the winter sky and see a huge halo around the full moon, or find yourself standing in the middle of a herd of Welsh mountain ponies at the edge of the Irish Sea, or find yourself dwarfed by six great “cartoons” from the life of Jesus drawn and painted by the master Rembrandt. You have your own, but they are the moments that make me feel really small but in a good way, or remind me that there is a reality more “real” than what you ordinarily experience, or simply leave me in a state of pure delight. Wonder!

I like the definition of wonder that reads: “a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration.” We sing about the wonder of the Cross, “When I survey the wondrous Cross…” But at Christmas I am challenged to think again about wonder. The stories of Jesus’ birth are so familiar. They are comforting. We even describe them as special or precious, but is it just a kind of sentimental attachment? When something becomes so familiar to us do we lose the ability to truly wonder at it (see “feeling of surprise” in the above definition)?

When Jesus says to the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2 that they have “abandoned the love they had at first” is it possible that a loss of wonder is part of Jesus’ challenge? I don’t know for sure, but I think it is worth considering the possibility. Part of worship, I believe, is wonder. Looking afresh and with unashamed amazement at God Himself and His glorious acts. I wish I could prescribe a simple three step process to recover wonder. I can’t, though there are some strategies that we can employ, starting simply with lingering when we have one of “those” moments. What I can do is encourage you to find those things that help you to enter into that wonder which is so characteristic of children. Put down all the “serious” things, all the bustling about, for a pause to listen to Handel’s Messiah, or read an excellent and joyful book, or play with a child. The Holy Spirit does wonderful things – things that are full of wonder – surprising and admirable.

For Christmas this year, one of the best gifts you can ask for (and work toward) is that the Holy Spirit with restore a sense of wonder to you, specifically related to the entrance of the Son of God into our experience one night hundreds of years ago – a night that literally changed everything.

Pursue Christ – He is enough,

            Pastor Jeff

A Return to the Theme of Rest

School is beginning all around us and summer is moving rapidly toward autumn. As a child I looked forward to summer, whole days full of play with no schoolwork to do, longer days to be outside, watermelon, ice cream trucks. As an adult, however, my feelings about summer are more ambivalent. Longer days and less rain mean more yard and house projects, work doesn’t stop or even really slow down, and there is the addition of “summer activities” to the schedule. Oh, I like summer. I like the sunshine and the longer days and the clear nights and still, the watermelon. But summer no longer offers the break in pace that makes it a restful season of recovery.

I struggle with the idea of rest, maybe you do to, because it seems so…well, unproductive. Our culture, that is contemporary American culture, has formed us to value productivity and devalue things that inhibit maximum output. This is true even when we know that there is a law of diminishing returns, that by not resting we actually become less productive. The writer Steven Covey called it “sharpening the saw.” The other struggle I have, is that I often associate rest with sleep. Yet there is much more to rest than sleep. Relating deeply with a “safe” other is a form of rest. Slowing down from activity to be still (without filling the space with entertainment) is a form of rest. Appreciating beauty – in nature or art or music – is a form of rest.

I have been challenged more and more to see the connection between the two ideas of rest and restoration. We need to restore far more than our physical energy on a regular basis. We need to restore relational connections. We need to restore joy. We need to restore creativity. We need to restore our sense of wonder. And…we need to restore our awareness of our profound dependence on God. To be “weary and worn out” is not just bad for our bodies, its bad for our souls. Its not just bad for our physical life, its bad for our spiritual life. God meant it when He commanded rest. He knew what we needed; after all, He did design us. Jesus invited us to rest and modeled rest in His own life. How can we follow Him well, if we won’t practice this most basic principle?

Pursue Christ – He is enough,

            Pastor Jeff